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 Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 9:47 pm
Now Birhan's eyes narrowed. So she had been right. Ares really would threaten Birhan - leave her to a General-Queen - just to keep her own dirty secret.
"You're being too modest," she coldly told the other senshi. "You've set up an unmatchable Court, filled with warriors and tacticians alike, all very capable people. We would survive a short time without you. In fact, we already are."
Birhan all but growled the last. Ares had already walked out on them, last meeting. She'd tossed the job of making and carrying out the next operation to Birhan, and had made it very clear that Ares would not only refuse to help, but would hold Birhan responsible (and say "I told you so") if Birhan failed. How dare Ares refuse to hand over her pen by listing consequences she had already put into motion.
"The next operation will be carried out without you. Your own decision," she reminded Ares. "What else would we need you for in the next weeks when you refuse your aid over hurt feelings? Such a loss is hardly crippling."
There was no agreement to be reached here. Birhan had to admit it, had to give in to the fact that she could not convince Ares or out-stubborn the woman. Birhan could match her, but this wasn't the time of the place. Ares wanted to use the threat of the General-Queen, but Birhan could have escaped on foot in the amount of time they'd wasted arguing. Ares wasn't going to let Birhan through that mirror without Birhan compromising what morals she had left. The only reason she could deal with returning to the BMC was the promise to herself to hold true to those morals, to not be swept along in Ares' violent whims again.
The Senshi of Renewal began backing up.
"I never thought I'd see the day you sunk so low as to hold the safety of your own people hostage, Ares," she said, expression and voice as dark as the shadows that enveloped her. "The ISS will hear of this. All of it."
And then Birhan was running, trying to put as much distance between herself and a bloodthirty General-Queen and an equally bloody-minded Ares as possible.
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 6:08 am
Ares would have never left Birhan Isat at the mercy of a General Queen, not in any way, shape, or form. She was making a point, one that she thought the lower-ranking senshi needed to hear. She had no idea how strongly the Senshi of Renewal was taking her words.
"A few days without me running meetings is not independence. Inexperience blinds you," she said coolly. "I had no intention of sitting out on whatever operation you came up with, sailor. Just like I didn't miss patrol tonight -- and just like I didn't miss my mark when I single-handedly killed General King Marthozite. As a super senshi. Just like I formed the Blood Moon Court as a regular senshi." It was as if Ares was reciting her battle resume, but the point was simple: to reinforce why she should never lose her henshin pen.
In her mind, it was bad battle strategy. You don't take out your MVP on the day of the big game -- and that was what Ares considered herself: MVP. At the end of the day, Ares was an eternal senshi and Birhan was just a regular. She would be unable to take the pen from her by force, and the Senshi of Smoke would not be forking it over. She thought it was a stupid strategical mistake to do it.
All over the life of one throwaway civilian.
"I want to protect them!" she shouted after the disappearing form of the other senshi. "You want to cripple us!"
There was a General Queen out here. Ares was not going to just let Birhan run to her death. The Eternal Senshi of Smoke jogged off behind the girl, waiting until the aura of the GQ dimmed and dulled. Only then did she fade through a mirror to safety. Birhan would cool her head, Ares was sure of that. She would go home and realize how foolish she had been in all of this, how stupid it was to strip Ares of her pen. In the morning, this would be forgotten.
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